Best Sing-Along Mother Goose Video Ever!

Nursery Rhymes Bedtime DVD from Richard Scarry Books

Jun 25, 2009 Renee Carver

The preschool educational DVD Richard Scarry's Best Sing-Along Mother Goose Video Ever! teaches kids classic nursery rhymes and can be used as a gentle bedtime DVD.

The preschool educational DVD Richard Scarry's Best Sing-Along Mother Goose Video Ever! uses the storyline of Huckle Cat dreaming about searching for his best friend Lowly Worm to introduce child viewers to a number of charming sung versions of Mother Goose nursery rhymes. Full of simple animation and silly jokes, this sweet Richard Scarry video will entertain kids while teaching them classic rhymes.

Richard Scarry's Best Sing-Along Mother Goose Video Ever! Plot

As with other preschool DVDs in the Random House series of Richard Scarry videos, this animated show opens with a shot of Busytown. It is the end of another busy day, and now that twilight has arrived, the inhabitants of Busytown are preparing to go to bed.

In the Cat family home, Mother Cat sings the lullaby "Star Light, Star Bright" to soothe Huckle to sleep while he makes a wish on a star to be able to find his missing best friend Lowly Worm. Once asleep, Huckle travels to Mother Goose Land in his dreams to launch a search for Lowly.

The plot of this educational video follows Huckle as he journeys through Mother Goose Land, meeting various Mother Goose characters and hearing a series of musical versions of Mother Goose rhymes. Eventually he meets Mother Goose herself, and after she carries him into the sky to continue his search for Lowly, he wakes up and discovers that Lowly has returned, having been busy all this time baking a surprise pie. The two friends then settle down for the night while Mother Cat sings them to sleep with a final lullaby.

Teaching Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes

This cute sing-along video introduces children to a variety of Mother Goose songs:

"London Bridge," which Huckle, a bunny, and two elephants also demonstrate how to play.
"Mary Had a Little Lamb."
"Old Mother Hubbard."
"Little Bo Peep."
"Hey Diddle Diddle."
"Little Miss Muffet."
"Hickory Dickory Dock."
"Three Little Kittens."
"Little Boy Blue."
"There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe."
"Wee Willie Winkie"
"Old King Cole."
"Sing a Song of Sixpence."

Hearing these classic nursery rhymes set to music in this preschool video will make them easier for children to remember and sing later, expanding their vocabularies and ability to play with language.

Educational Video Adapted from Richard Scarry Books

Of course, the characters of the Cat family and Lowly Worm come from Richard Scarry's Busytown books, such as Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day [Random House, 1968] and Richard Scarry's Great Big Schoolhouse [reprint edition, Sterling Books, 2008]. In addition, most of the Mother Goose rhymes sung by the characters appear in the children's picture book Richard Scarry's Best Mother Goose Ever [Golden Books, 1999], though different animals portray the nursery rhyme characters in the book than in the preschool video.

The character design in this Mother Goose DVD matches that of the original characters in the books, but the humor, though present, is different from classic Richard Scarry humor. The jokes in a Richard Scarry book generally spring from silly, slapstick situations or deadpan observations made by the narrator, with an occasional wisecrack from a character sprinkled in.

This Mother Goose video, on the other hand, draws humor from allusions only adults will get (Little Bo Peep's sheep have names like Ferdinand and Isabella and Fred and Ginger) or adaptations of old jokes (when Huckle asks if Old King Cole has seen Lowly, the king describes Lowly in detail before providing the punchline that he has never seen him). Still, children will accept the humor in this Mother Goose DVD on its own terms and enjoy the video nevertheless.

Preschoolers may also enjoy other Richard Scarry videos like Richard Scarry's Best Busy People Video Ever! and Richard Scarry's Best Silly Stories & Songs Ever!, as well as the animated television series The Busy World of Richard Scarry.

The copyright of the article Best Sing-Along Mother Goose Video Ever! in Children’s TV is owned by Renee Carver. Permission to republish Best Sing-Along Mother Goose Video Ever! in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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